


Affection

by rangerhitomi



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: Cat Cafe, First Dates, M/M, awkward confessions, extremely cheesy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:21:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28332306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rangerhitomi/pseuds/rangerhitomi
Summary: Aichi invites Kai on a date to a cat café but Kai doesn't realize it's a date until Aichi is trying to hold his hand.
Relationships: Kai Toshiki/Sendou Aichi
Comments: 6
Kudos: 30





	Affection

**Author's Note:**

> a gift request for SonNacho on twitter, who wanted "kaichi date with kai being awkward" (which is really just kai all the time)

As the light snow falls around them, Kai remembers how inadequate his school uniform is at keeping him warm in the winter and hopes that they’ve almost reached their destination before his hands freeze off.

(“Kai-kun, w-would you like to go with me to a place I saw last week?” Aichi’s nose was red from the chill in the air. He seemed so eager and hopeful that Kai couldn’t say no, even when Aichi simply replied to Kai’s question of “where are we going” with “it’s a surprise!”

Kai could accept that it was a surprise. Still, he had to force the word _date_ down into the depths of his mind, not allowing himself for an instant to entertain that such a thing was Aichi’s intent.)

They finally reach a small indoor shopping center and head up to the second level, where Aichi stops in front of a cozy little shop with a cartoonish picture of a cat hanging on the door. Kai reads the sign and glances down at Aichi, who gazes up with a bright smile on his still-red face. “A cat café?”

“Mm-hm! Misaki-san said you play with Sub-Manager sometimes and I thought it was c—I thought maybe you like cats?”

The fact that Aichi had gone out of his way to take Kai to a cat café based solely on Tokura’s observation that Kai was sometimes nice to Sub-Manager is endearing, Kai supposes, so he shrugs noncommittally, says “sure,” and lets Aichi hold the door for him.

“Go ahead and find a spot for us while I check us in,” Aichi offers once they’ve changed into fluffy cat slippers (Kai says nothing about it and _refuses_ to let his face turn pink as Aichi giggles at them); Kai wanders into the main room and finds…

Cats.

Cats _everywhere._

He’d never had a pet as a child, as his mother was allergic, but Miwa had a cat growing up that Kai had been fond of. He always wished he could have a cat someday, but the apartment he lives in doesn’t allow animals and he’s barely home as it is. He can’t take care of a cat at this point in his life.

Some days, he can barely take care of himself.

He hears a little chirp at his feet and looks down to see a calico rub his ankles; he crouches down to pet it and it bumps his hand with its face, purring so intently that he can feel it vibrating.

“You’re friendly, aren’t you.” Kai checks its name tag. _Akiko._ “A good name.”

He pets the cat for a little longer until he hears soft giggling behind him and remembers that he’d come here with someone. And that someone is gazing down at him with a cup of coffee in either hand, a warm smile on his face.

“She likes you, Kai-kun.”

“Y-yeah, I guess…” Kai gives Akiko another little head rub before straightening up. He feels like he needs to explain himself. “She started rubbing my ankles, so…”

“I see.” Aichi takes a sip of his coffee and holds out the other cup. There’s a tiny smile on his face. “For you.”

Kai takes the drink, avoiding directly at Aichi’s face. “Thanks.”

“Mm-hm.” Aichi takes another sip and gestures toward a nearby kotatsu. “Shall we?”

As they sit, Kai is reminded of how cold he is from the weather and welcomes the warmth, of both the kotatsu and the hot coffee, which Aichi had somehow gotten exactly as Kai likes it. He closes his eyes contentedly, letting the hot liquid with just a little cream and sugar flow down his throat and fill his chest with warmth and comfort.

They’ve only been seated for a minute when Akiko joins them, using Kai’s chest as a brace to climb onto her back legs to help investigate the hot drink in Kai’s hand.

“H-hey now…” Kai can feel his face warm as Aichi laughs. “This isn’t for you, kitty.” He sets down the cup and coaxes Akiko down onto his lap. “You can stay there.”

She meows indignantly and tries to climb him again, so Kai sets down the coffee and plucks her from his chest, being careful not to let her claws catch in his uniform jacket. These uniforms are expensive enough as it is without getting holes in them, and Kai still has three months of school left until graduation that this uniform must last through.

There’s the soft _clink_ of a mug being set down and Akiko makes a curious chirrup sound as another hand touches her head. Aichi leans closer, smiling at the cat, and scratches her behind the ears. She starts purring loudly again.

“Good kitty,” Aichi says soothingly. “Don’t ruin Kai-kun’s clothes, okay? Be a good girl.”

She finally climbs down Kai’s shirt and sits on his lap, meowing at Aichi as he rubs her under the chin and brushes his thumb along the side of her face. Finally content, she curls up on Kai’s lap and flops over on her side, sprawling out over his thighs.

Kai watches all of this with a mixture of curiosity and some other emotion he can’t quite place, one that makes his chest constrict uncomfortably. Had Aichi always been so good with animals? Was this one more thing Kai didn’t know about him?

With the cat now asleep and purring on Kai’s lap, Aichi picks up his cup again and sips at it, pulling his legs out from under him and tucking them under the kotatsu. “Hey, Kai-kun? You’re really good with cats.”

Kai grabs his cup and takes a large sip to avoid having to answer right away. Fortunately, the coffee has cooled down enough that it doesn’t scald his throat on the way down, but it is still hot enough to make his eyes water.

Aichi slides a little closer, leaning back on one hand to prop himself up while petting Akiko with the other. There’s a drowsy _mrrrrow?_ as she opens one eye in Aichi’s direction before she yawns widely, all teeth bared, and goes back to sleep.

“You called her ‘kitty,’” Aichi says, looking up at Kai. Kai looks away, aware that his face is warming. “I’ve never heard you use a word like that before.”

“It’s nothing,” Kai mumbles, but any continued defense of his own stalwart indifference evaporates as Aichi’s hand slides just close enough to his to place his fingers over Kai’s.

 _That’s right,_ he thinks, remembering that feeling he couldn’t quite place as Aichi had pet Akiko just a few minutes ago, _I like him, don’t I._

Every muscle in his body except his heart screams at him to pull his hand away. He’s graduating in three months. He’s been contemplating going abroad. Aichi still has a year left of school. He can’t! He shouldn’t let himself!

“Kai-kun?”

Aichi’s hand slides all the way over Kai’s, small and warm, despite the earlier chill.

Kai swallows.

“You’re kind of shaky. Are you okay?”

“Uh-huh,” Kai manages. His voice comes out higher than normal.

Aichi tilts his head at Kai and smiles. Kai knows that _Aichi_ knows that Kai is full of crap and decides to be extremely polite about it with a simple “okay.”

Except Aichi

keeps

_smiling._

“A-Aichi.”

“Yes, Kai-kun?” Aichi’s hand tightens over Kai’s.

Is he doing this on purpose, Kai wonders, or does Aichi just not know what he’s doing to Kai right now?

“C-can you…” Kai’s throat is dry.

“Can I…?”

That smile is so soft it’s making Kai want to evaporate into the floor.

“Can you help me move the cat so I can uncramp my knees?” Kai whispers in a rush, and Aichi’s warm smile falters.

 _Oh, he was_ definitely _doing it on purpose then. Okay._

Aichi finally lifts his hand from Kai’s and reaches for the cat, scooping his hands under her head and side, and starts to lift her. She growls and digs her claws into Kai’s pant leg.

“Ah, okay, that’s, that doesn’t, sorry—”

“It’s okay,” Kai breathes, trying to ignore the fact that Aichi was so close to him now that he can smell his shampoo. Herbal. And pleasant. “Here, I’ll pick her up and you can detach the claw, so she doesn’t tear my pants.”

“Yeah, I can do that…”

Akiko is unhappy about being picked up as Kai adjusts his legs, but she is content and flops back over as soon as Kai sets her back down. He sighs and leans back.

So does Aichi, who pets the cat for a minute before placing his hand back over Kai’s.

“Kai-kun,” he says quietly, “I’ve been trying to…”

Kai’s throat is dry again. “Trying to… what?”

“H-hold your hand!”

And Aichi buries his face in Kai’s shoulder.

Maybe Kai had figured it out ten minutes ago, but hearing the words makes it more real than Aichi’s touch. He has to say something, and it has to be gentle and sensitive and _not_ dismissive or sarcastic or indifferent, because, god damn it, he wants Aichi to hold his hand, too.

“Was this… a date?” he asks in a low voice, and Aichi lets out a kind of whimpering sound that’s muffled by the fabric of Kai’s jacket. Akiko makes another chirping sound into Kai’s lap.

“I wanted it to be, y-yes!” Aichi lifts his head from Kai’s shoulder and climbs to his knees so he and Kai are face-to-face. “I’ve been… I’ve been trying for a year to, you know, to get to this point because I thought you might finally like me back but I didn’t know for sure and I tried flirting but I’m not good at it—”

“Wait,” Kai interrupts, only processing half of this astounding confession, “a _year_?”

“You know,” Aichi whispers, flinging his hands helplessly, “since the, you know, since the moon thing.”

“You’ve been—for a year!” Kai rubs his hand over his face. How could he have _not_ noticed Aichi flirting with him for an entire _year?_

Another cat saunters over to Aichi and sits by his knees, giving him a questioning meow, and soon two more join. Akiko wakes and looks up at Kai questioningly, but Kai is still trying to wrap his head around the fact that he had been nursing a painful crush on Aichi for two years and it had been reciprocated without his knowing for at _least_ half that.

“Aichi,” he says hoarsely, “of _course_ I liked you back.”

“H-huh?”

One of the new cats meows and headbutts Aichi’s thigh, which he barely seems to notice as he and Kai stare at each other.

With one hand, Kai reaches down to pet Akiko, and the other he extends toward Aichi. It shakes a little as he says, “if you want to hold my hand, I wouldn’t mind.”

Aichi’s face goes through several emotions before settling on something like relief as he ignores the hand altogether and flings his arms around Kai’s neck.

“MRRRRROOOW!”

“Ah! Sorry, kitty!”

They spend the next half hour playing with the cats, with Akiko refusing to leave Kai’s side while simultaneously refusing to actually play with any of the proffered toys, and when it’s time to leave, he feels a little sad leaving her behind.

“She’s very attached to you,” the clerk says, smiling. “That’s pretty rare, she tends to be more aloof.”

“She found a kindred spirit,” Aichi says with a laugh, and Kai kind of frowns.

(He’s right and Kai knows it.)

Kai bends down to pet Akiko one more time, and as she rubs his hand, Kai looks up at Aichi. “You know, I wouldn’t mind coming back to see her again.”

Aichi doesn’t bother to hide his fond smile, now. Kai can’t believe he had never noticed how often Aichi smiles at him just like that. “Of course, Kai-kun.” Aichi tilts his head playfully as Kai stands. Aichi takes him by the hand and links their hands together as they wave good-bye to the cats. “It’s a date.”

**Author's Note:**

> when Kai says "kitty" he of course says "neko-chan" which is why Aichi thinks it's the cutest goddamn thing


End file.
